Off beaten track

The Skyline on the banks of Airoli Creek Located in the suburbs of Mumbai, Airoli Creek is a wide tidal creek, flanked by mangroves teeming with life, but the concrete march threatens to annihilate the mangroves and with them all that is attracted to these mangroves.    Sunrise at Bhandup Pumping Station BPS is a perennial waterbody surrounded by scrub, bushes and mangroves, thus one sees a wide variety of birds. There is a small waterway that leads from here to the main Airoli Creek which is flanked by mangroves. An inquisitive cormorant There are waterbirds and scrubland birds, particularly in winter when migratory birds come in, passing through or destination. On one morning recently we saw 46 types of birds, some resident and many migratory. A Pair of White Cheeked Bulbuls Residents here, there are many bulbuls around BPS.  The marshes around are always wet, being tidally fed and a walk through them is messy and difficult but always interestin...

Last Sunday a friend suggested we go to a tidal lake near Navi Mumbai and watch flamingos. It was a hot morning and 10 am in the sun is not exactly pleasant.  Anyway loaded with water, binoculars and cameras we were by the water at 10 am. To our disappointment there were four flamingos in the lake. quite an anticlimax considering the distance we had driven in the heat.  Anyway, as we were here we took a few desultory photos and were readying to leave....... .....when the young eyes of my friend saw a flock approaching in the distance, as the birds came closer, we identified them as more flamingos, in their hundreds...... ...The birds flew overhead and surveyed the site..... ....and came in to land. At first there were a few ..... ..... then the size of the flocks grew.... ..... then there were even larger flocks flying in...... .....  in their thousands .... ..... All flying in perfect formation, executing a circuit and landing.... ..... all of them executed a perfect cir...